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When we start our journey into cyber security, we always dream of hacking into applications, performing Wi-Fi hacking, or harvesting credentials, and we don’t think anything beyond this, but these are not traits of a real hacker.
Who is a Real Hacker?
Using tools that are coded by a GitHub user or one you found in Kali Linux or Parrot OS doesn’t necessarily make you a hacker, but maybe we can put you into the category of script kiddies. Obviously, this comes with an exception you really can’t script your own Wireshark, BurpSuite, NMAP or Aircrack-NG because doing those is just stupidity so we consider these as any hacker’s core armoury.
A real hacker codes scripts for vulnerabilities they have found or that are pre-existing but they can automate the exploits using simple Python code. Now here I want to give you a roadmap on how you become a good hacker with resistance to future changes.
Roadmap for a Hacker
1. Learn the trend
Before you even step into a river you should be aware of 2 things the direction of the current and the depth of the river, if you don’t then maybe you will be stuck. Here direction of the current means a particular domain of information security and being aware of its relevance in the future. The depth can be taken literally meaning how demanding is the domain ?
Domains like Blockchain, AI Models (LLMs or Chatbots), WEB3, Dynamic Applications, Hardware Security, Wireless (Bluetooth, Software Defined Radios), and DevOps are in high demand and demand skills that are highly specific to these domains and indeed rewarding.
2. Start Working
Make a list of skills that are required, each domain demands different skills, use AI chatbots like Claude, and ChatGPT to explore more in-demand skills and search resources to learn them, for the above-mentioned domains I want to list out a couple of skills :
- Blockchain Security
- Smart contract auditing (Solidity, Vyper, Rust)
- Common vulnerabilities (Reentrancy, Oracle manipulation, Flash loans)
- Blockchain forensics & threat analysis
- Secure wallet & private key management
- Layer 2 security (Rollups, Sidechains)
- Defi protocol security testing
- AI & LLM Security
- Adversarial machine learning attacks (Model poisoning, Prompt injection)
- AI model fingerprinting & evasion techniques
- Data privacy in AI (Federated learning, Differential privacy)
- LLM security (Prompt hijacking, Model jailbreaking)
- Secure AI API & middleware integration
- Web3 Security
- Decentralized application (dApp) penetration testing
- API security for blockchain interactions
- Web3 authentication & identity management (SSO, OAuth)
- Security of cross-chain bridges & oracles
- Smart contract fuzzing & formal verification
- Dynamic Web Applications Security
- Web penetration testing (SQLi, XSS, SSRF, RCE)
- API security (JWT, OAuth, OpenAPI vulnerabilities)
- Modern authentication attacks (2FA bypass, session hijacking)
- Supply chain security (Dependency analysis, Code integrity)
- Cloud-native application security (Serverless, Kubernetes)
- Hardware & Embedded Security
- irmware analysis & reverse engineering (IDA, Ghidra)
- JTAG, UART, SPI debugging & exploitation
- Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security
- Chip-off data extraction & forensic analysis
- Secure boot & hardware root-of-trust
- Wireless Security (Bluetooth, SDR, IoT)
- Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) security testing
- Zigbee, NFC, RFID hacking techniques
- SDR & RF signal analysis (HackRF, RTL-SDR)
- IoT protocol security (MQTT, CoAP, LoRaWAN)
- Automotive security (CAN bus, ECU hacking)
- DevSecOps & Cloud Security
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) security (Terraform, Ansible)
- Cloud security frameworks (AWS/GCP/Azure)
- CI/CD pipeline security (SAST, DAST, IAST)
- Container security (Kubernetes, Docker hardening)
- Identity & access management (Zero Trust, RBAC)
3. Practice
There are platforms to practice and hack such as :
1️⃣ Blockchain Security
- Smart Contract Auditing → Ethernaut (OpenZeppelin)
- CTFs & Bug Bounties → Sherlock CTF, Code4rena
- Hands-on Labs → Security Innovation Blockchain CTF
- Ethereum Forensics → BlockSec CTF
2️⃣ AI & LLM Security
- Adversarial Machine Learning → AI Village CTF
- Prompt Injection Attacks → LLM Attack Labs
- Secure AI Model Deployment → MITRE ATLAS
- Federated Learning Security → PySyft
3️⃣ Web3 Security
- dApp Pentesting → Paradigm CTF
- Web3 API Security → Alchemy Web3 Security Labs
- Cross-Chain Bridge Security → Immunefi Web3 Bounties
- Smart Contract Bug Hunting → Hats Finance
4️⃣ Dynamic Web Applications Security
- Web Pentesting → PortSwigger Web Security Academy
- API Security → APIsec University
- Modern Authentication Attacks → Hack The Box (HTB)
- Cloud Web Security → FlAWS 2 (AWS Security)
5️⃣ Hardware & Embedded Security
- Firmware Analysis → Attify Labs
- JTAG & UART Hacking → Hackaday.io Hardware Security
- Automotive Security → CANtact & ICSim
- IoT Security Challenges → TryHackMe IoT Labs
6️⃣ Wireless Security (Bluetooth, SDR, IoT)
- SDR & Radio Exploitation → Great Scott Gadgets Labs
- Bluetooth Hacking → Internalblue BLE Labs
- IoT Protocol Security → Attify IoT Security Training
- RFID & NFC Hacking → Proxmark3 & NFC Tools
7️⃣ DevSecOps & Cloud Security
- AWS/GCP/Azure Security → CloudGoat
- Container Security → Play With Docker (PWD)
- CI/CD Pipeline Security → Secure Code Warrior
- Kubernetes Pentesting → Kubernetes Goat
4. Code
Python plays an important role in the field of Cyber Security and it is now almost a must-have skill, let me explain to you how Python is so critical in each of the above-mentioned domains!
- Blockchain
- Automate Smart Contract Analysis
- Track blockchain transactions to detect fraud
- finding vulnerabilities in Ethereum Smart Contracts
- Packages: web3.py, pyethereum, solcx
- AI and LLM Security
- Identify weaknesses in AI models
- Run automated attacks on models to test defences
- automate prompt injection
- Packages: transformers, art, foolbox
- WEB3 Security
- Automate decentralized application testing
- Testing Blockchain API
- Packages: web3.py, py-solc-x, evm-trace
- Web Application Security
- API testing
- Vulnerability testing automation
- Packages: requests, selenium, beautifulsoup4
- Hardware & Embedded Security
- IoT device hacking
- UART, SPI, JTAG security testing
- Packages: pyserial, binwalk, scapy
- Wireless and Radio Frequency
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Hacking
- SDR- based attacks
- Packages: scapy, bluepy, rfcat
- DevOps and Cloud Security
- Cloud Service Provider, Kubernetes and Container Security
- Automate Cloud Audits
- Packages: boto3, docker-py, Kubernetes
5. Important Note
Don’t go fancy and try buying all the stuff like expensive network adapters, Raspberry Pi’s or any fancy devices like Flipper Zero, hacking is just 20 per cent machine and 80 per cent the person behind it, buy only what’s required and avoid anything fancy.
Conclusion
In order to be a future-proof hacker the above may be handy for you if you are planning to start your career in security, remember its time time-consuming, requires patience and consistency matters only then you become a good hacker and hack systems.
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